Taking a dig at DMK working president M.K. Stalin’s recent statement that the DMK MPs and MLAs were ready to put in their papers to put pressure on the Centre to set up the Cauvery Management Board at the earliest, BJP’s Tamil Nadu president Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan wondered whether Stalin was really ‘genuine’ in his stance.

Delivering a verdict while taking up review petitions of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala challenging the decade-long 2007 verdict of the Cauvery River Water Disputes Tribunal, the Supreme Court of India directed the BJP-led Centre two weeks back to set up a Cauvery Management Board within six weeks to manage the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.

Karnataka hasn’t been happy with the Supreme Court verdict. Though Tamil Nadu’s water-share has been reduced a bit, farmers in the State are happy about the proposed Cauvery Management Board. An all-party meeting convened by chief-minister Edapadi K. Palaniswamy decided to visit Delhi to request the Prime Minister to hasten the process of constituting the Cauvery Management Board.

During Saturday’s meeting with the chief-minister, Stalin was reportedly told by the former that the Prime Minister hadn’t granted time (appointment) to meet all-party leaders from the State and desired that they meet the concerned Union Minister. Stalin condemned the Prime Minister’s ‘no’ to a meeting with him and said that Tamil MLAs and MPs should consider resigning ‘en masse’ to put pressure on the Centre.

He also said that DMK MPs and MLAs are ready to resign at once. Welcoming Stalin’s statement, Tamilisai wondered whether Stalin was ‘genuine’ in his statement about the willingness of his party MLAs and MPs to resign. “Is he serious or is he saying on the lines of Kanimozhi’z resignation drama (from Rajya Sabha) or Karunanidhi’s protest fasts in the past?  Let him spell it out clearly,” Tamilisai said.